“Ohio has maintained...the position that we’ve had over the past couple years,” said McDonald. “We have a very very strong research capability in this region, the Dayton region, and across the state of Ohio.”

The conference will be filled with government officials, including representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the body that regulates drones in U.S. airspace. The FAA is now taking bids from universities who want to house a national center for the study of commercial drones, and McDonald says local universities will be looking to hear more about that.

Some college students are planning a throw-down—or, more like a fly-down—to show off their drone programming skills. That’ll be indoors, of course, where it’s legal to fly commercial drones, so if you are inside the Dayton Convention Center this week, watch your head.

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Thursday is the second day of meetings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for small businesses in the defense industry. The event is part of an effort on the part of the Air Force to work more with small contractors; base officials say it helps them stay efficient as the government cuts defense budgets.

Those cuts have been bad news for local industry, which provides the Air Force with everything from computer systems to research to airplane parts—but not all contractors are feeling the same pain.

Sinclair Community College has announced it’s teaming up with Southern State Community College to expand and collaborate on its unmanned aerial system program.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as UAVs or drones, are expected to become a big commercial market in the next few years, and a lot of entrepreneurs have their eyes on Ohio’s farm fields. Sensor technology and cameras on the vehicles would let farmers scan huge areas more easily, looking for mold, pests or standing water, just for example.